Books

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I’m the author of two books, the award winning Coming Clean: A Story of Faith, and The Book of Waking Up: Experiencing the Divine Love that Reorders a Life. Coming Clean is a tender memoir chronicling my first 90 days of sobriety. In The Book of Waking Up, my latest release, I explore the meaning of true spiritual sobriety.

The Book of Waking Up

The Book of Waking Up: Experiencing the Divine Love That Reorders a Life is available now at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Bookish (my favorite independent book seller)*.

Who’s this book for?

  • If you want to wake from your coping mechanisms, attachments, or addictions, this book is for you.

  • If you want to wake to the Divine Love of God that brings clarity and true sobriety, this book is for you.

  • If you have a friend or family member who’s struggling with booze, food, pills, porn, gambling, shopping, constant video gaming, or incessant Netflix binging, this book is for you.

  • If you want to learn how to use all created things for their God-intended purpose, this book is for you.

Grab a copy, and as you read, come back here to check out the library of books that influenced The Book of Waking Up. (And don’t forget to check out my award-winning book, Coming Clean: A Story of Faith.)

*Reminder: Consider supporting your indie booksellers.

The Waking Up Library

The Book of Waking Up was influenced by so many different books. In fact, it includes a veritible library of resources on addiction, disordered attachments, and spiritual formation. These books are worthy additions to your library. Grab a copy of each.

  1. Lit, Mary Karr: My favorite book on this list (and perhaps my favorite memoir), poet and professor Karr shares her journey from alcoholic atheism to sober-minded Catholicism. This work is achingly beautiful. (Amazon, B&N, Bookish)

  2. In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, Gabor Maté: If there’s one book that’s influenced my understanding of addiction more than any other, it’s this one. Maté, who works with heroin addicts at the Portland Hotel in Vancouver, writes, “The question is never, ‘Why the addiction?’ but ‘Why the Pain?’” (Amazon, B&N, Bookish)

  3. The Problem of Pain, C.S. Lewis: Why do humans suffer? Why is there pain in the world? In this book, Lewis takes the universal question and answers it with the philosophical and theological acuity that only he brings to life. (Amazon, B&N, Bookish)

  4. Addiction and Grace: Love and Spirituality in the Healing of Addictions, Gerald May: A book I put off reading for years, I’m glad I picked May’s sure-to-be classic work up near the end of writing The Book of Waking Up. May’s work helped me unlock a thing or two, and is a must-read for anyone dealing with addiction from a spiritual perspective. (Amazon, B&N, Bookish)

  5. The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius: Meant to be read in conjunction with a spiritual director, St. Ignatius’s writings on disordered affections (and reordering those affections) serve as the basis for my understanding of true, inner sobriety. Grab a copy of the Exercises, but before you do, spend some time exploring the Ignatian Spirituality Center in Kansas City.